By Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt
A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze has engaged an aide to Rivers State Governor and Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, in war of words over allegations of partisanship against Prof. Henry Ugboma.
Nsirim, who fired the first salvo was embittered over Ugboma’s recent public commentaries against the administration of Governor Nyesom Wike saying the professor, who is the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) was gradually becoming a political sycophant.
The commissioner said Ugboma’s provocative commentaries and inciting rhetoric in the political space was gaining more ignoble attention than his contributions to the medical profession as the administrative head of UPTH.
He said the CMD had resorted to paying for announcements in radio stations to appease his paymasters describing his appointment as a political compensation to serve as one of the arrowheads of the opposition political party in the state.
He said: “With childish obsession and dwelling effusively on a past in which he conveniently forgets by a deliberate act of selective amnesia that two stupendous white elephants; the monorail project which is still a monumental disaster and the bogus Karibi Whyte Hospital, which is the greatest optical illusion scam ever conceived and perpetrated, still serve as references on the landscape, to remind Rivers people of the mind boggling rape of our resources.
“One needs to remind Prof. Ugboma and his likes that the Rivers State Government with great humility expressed her appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for graciously approving the N78.9billion refund of Rivers State money expended on Federal Projects. To promote the narrative of making people to believe the refund was an act of charity is infantile.
“Let us also remind the emergency political commentator of the rigourous efforts of Governor Nyesom Wike to secure the refund and recover Rivers State money from the Federal Government, including a re-appraisal of the original refund request by the previous administration, which was even rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari in his first term.
“This led to the setting up of a special committee to review the properly repackaged second request by Governor Wike, which compelled the Chairman of the Committee and the Minister of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola, to visit Rivers State for an on the spot assessment of the projects, before payment was approved.
“Ugboma and his anti-progressive co-travellers would have wished that Rivers money was never refunded but unfortunately, President Muhammadu Buhari believes that government is a continuum”.
Nsirim said unlike the previous administration of Rotimi Amaechi, when crime and criminality was like a festering sore, Wike through pragmatic security architecture, Operation Sting, had made the state safe and secure.
“One can easily understand the pugnacious and utopian nostalgia of Ugboma. His bitter, ignoble, acrimonious and sometimes hate-filled vindictive political campaign have always met a brick wall.
“The fact that Governor Wike has tolerated his political nuisance and meddlesomeness in matters that were outside his professional calling, is a true testimony of maturity from a leader who has the equanimity to tolerate his likes,” he said.
Nsirim added that Ugboma tried to play politics with the safety of Rivers lives over the COVID-19 pandemic in the state but was cautioned to stop the mischief.
He said: “One is not surprised that Ugboma’s cantankerous attitude and dictatorial tendencies have attracted the ire of his colleagues in the medical profession.
“The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has now demanded for his immediate removal as Chief Medical Director of UPTH, for alleged fraud, administrative rascality, unnecessary onslaught, victimisation and abuse of office”.
Eze, who has been speaking for Ugboma, however, described the statement of Nsirim as paradoxical and absurd saying it had attracted wide condemnation and public criticism.
Eze said Nsirim tried hard but failed to discredit and sabotage the image and landmark records of Ugboma adding that the commissioner threw his conscience to the dogs to allow himself gabble in a matter of public knowledge.
He noted that the life and health of Rivers people had been the cardinal priority of Ugboma, saying he had been in the forefront of the war against the ravaging COVID-19 since the state recorded her index case a few months ago.
He said: “His professionalism and dexterity in handling the outbreak has earned him commendations and endeared him to the populace. The towering profile of UPTH as the Chief Health Institution for COVID 19 sample testing in the South-South region under Prof. Ugboma, is momentous.
“Majority of the COVID-19 cases in the state are handled at the UPTH by Ugboma and his team of competent professionals. Eze said, it is sickening and pricks the conscience to learn that the state government is unsettled with this.
“Does Governor Wike and his allies obviate the fact that the state would have been the worst-hit in the pandemic had Prof. Ugboma not stood in the gap? As a matter of fact, the state government is indebted to the CMD and the UPTH for covering the multitude of rot, dearth and lapses in the health sector under Governor Wike. Nsirim should immediately apologize to Prof. Ugboma for his unruly comments.
Eze lambasted Nsirim for tagging the Rivers monorail as a monumental disaster adding that his assertion added credence to the general assertion that the current administration was grossly populated by a crop of unenlightened laymen.
He said: “One would have loved to see Mr. Paulinus Nsirim exert energy on the use of the N78bn refunded the state government for Federal Projects executed by Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, when he was Rivers Governor.
“What if the state Information Commissioner could update Nigerians on the conditions of the over 160 prototype state of the Primary Health Centres built and equipped by the administration of Chibuike Amaechi?
“I heard the Information Commissioner say President Buhari believes that government is a continuum. Has Mr. Paulinus Nsirim forgotten that the 24 university-like model Secondary Schools built by the Amaechi administration currently suffers reckless abandonment?”
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